Island on the Edge by Anne Cholawo

A Life on Soay

Soay? We know Scotland pretty well, and had come across references to
the island in the context of the post-war efforts of author Gavin Maxwell to
establish a (short-lived) fishery there for basking sharks. So we knew
Soay was somewhere near the Isle of Skye, but
that was about it. We'd certainly have been hard-pressed to point it out
on an unlabelled map.

"Island on the Edge: A Life on Soay" by Anne Cholawo is a wonderful book
that has brought this easily-overlooked island to life in a truly
magical way. "Easily-overlooked" but hardly insignificant. Soay is
some three miles long by nearly two miles wide, and almost cut in
two by inlets that intrude into the north western and south eastern
shores. It guards the entrance to Skye's Loch Scavaig and is separated
by the Soay Sound from the loneliest and most remote part of Skye's
coastline, where the southern end of the Cuillins descends to meet
the sea.

Anne Cholawo was working in an advertising agency in London, and
commuting into the city each day, when, in September
1989, she saw an advert for a cottage while on holiday on Skye.
The cottage was basic, but attractive, and offered
the prospect of an escape from a life she increasingly hated. The
part in the advert about "access by courtesy of fishing boat" was
confusing, because Anne thought the cottage was on the coast of Skye.
It was only subsequently that she discovered that it was on a remote
island with no mains services and no ferry, but by then she was already
dreaming about the possibilities of an entirely new life. She returned
a month later to visit the cottage, transported to the island from
Elgol by the cottage's owner in
his boat. Within ten minutes of landing on the island she knew that
whatever the drawbacks of an insular life, and whatever the condition
of the cottage, she had to move to Soay. She did, in the spring of 1990,
and she still lives on the island today.

"Island on the Edge: A Life on Soay" is really two different
stories woven tightly together. One of the stories
charts the trajectory of settlement on the island since 1990.
When Anne first moved to Soay, there were 17 permanent residents on
the island, and a school. Today there are only three residents,
and the school is long closed. There have been many other changes
to life on the island during that time as well. Rabbits have disappeared,
and bird life has diminished: probably as a result of the arrival
of mink. And deer have made their way to the island, which now seems
more prone to storms than was the case a couple of decades ago. This
wider story of diminishing population is tinged with considerable
sadness, and raises an obvious question, discussed by the author
and reflected in the title of her book, about the future of the island.

The second story is an intensely personal and deeply uplifting one.
How did a city girl manage to survive, and then thrive, in such a
remote location? There's a strong sense that Anne's initial ignorance
and naivety acted as shields, without which she would never have contemplated
the life she took on. Initially she made her way largely
through the help and support of the friends and neighbours she found
on Soay, and others, including the Marines, who were persuaded to
lift her piano to the island slung under a helicopter as part of an
exercise. As time went on she grew increasingly able to support herself,
whether in terms of collecting winkles to make a living, or fixing
the engine and electrics of her nearly-wrecked boat; and she increasingly
supported those who had supported her during her early years on the
island. That is, until most of them moved away from Soay, one-by-one
or two-by-two, or died. This aspect of Anne's story is also full of
uncertainty about what the future holds, but you get the feeling that
if anyone can continue to thrive on Soay then it will be Anne, and the
husband and family she found as a result of living there.